Although Mike Ploszek characterized this week’s annual NCAA Convention in Dallas as “nothing dramatic” in terms of its impact on the University of Maine, the Black Bear athletic director said two committees formed during the convention by leagues with which Maine is affiliated could have far-reaching effects on the UM program.

Ploszek said Friday he helped organize and will chair a six-member committee to study the future of Yankee Conference football. And he will serve as a member of a five-member committee to study gender equity within the North Atlantic Conference.

“These are issues we feel need to be addressed,” said Ploszek, Maine’s second-year AD. “We felt it was better to get involved rather than sit back.”

Ploszek said the Yankee Conference committee, which includes Maine faculty representative George Jacobson as well as the ADs from Rhode Island, Connecticut, and Northeastern, and a facutly rep from Villanova, will study ways to cut spending on Division I-AA football evenly in order to maintain equal competitiveness among the league’s 12 members.

“We’ll look at scholarship levels and coaching levels and how we might move forward,” said Ploszek. “My feeling is with the cost pressures all the schools are under we’ve got to face up to it if we want to make sure we continue to have football.”

Ploszek said the Yankee Conference committee expects to have a group of recommendations prepared in time for the league’s annual convention in May.

The NAC gender equity committee will be chaired by University of Delaware women’s AD Mary Lou Hitchens.

Ploszek said gender equity is a major concern among the eight members of the NAC. At Maine, Ploszek recently instituted a five-year plan to bring the institution into better compliance with Title IX, the federal law guaranteeing women equal opportunity to compete.

“We feel like there’s a real window of opportunity to take action on this,” Ploszek said.